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Maybe someone reading this will think twice about helping a family/friend build credit... I've been repairing & building my credit for a few months. Still such a newbie though I've been reading & reading & reading this site (and I'll admit maybe one other...) and asking questions as I go along. Learning slowly. My younger sister and I are very close and she might be the only one who knows how Chocolate Goodness my credit is/was. (Well, except for all of you... but you don't know me, so it's fine!) After confessing to her about all my new cards, and higher credit score she asked me to help her and her husband. We pulled reports and at age 24 she has basically NO credit. She has one small loan that is paid off with 2 lates and a collection from a cell phone bill. Nothing else. She told me she hates credit cards, hates banks, hates contracts and is happy with cash only. BUT... wants to build credit since she's recently married and they are talking about a house in a few years. Her DH has two auto loans (one paid) and a card that is at 101% util with a $600 limit. No baddies, but obviously high utilization issues. His AAOA is about 1.5 years. One thing I learned was how important it is to build early to allow age to grow. I'm an advocate of a thick file nowadays. So, I offered to help her with some shopping cart tricks and explained to him about utilzation. I shared this website with them. Showed how to read a credit report. Talked about addressing the late payments and layed out a plan to tackle the collection. I talked and talked and talked to her about the IMPORTANCE of NOT using the card except for a little cheap item and then PAY IT OFF! I stressed how I messed up by being young and dumb and charging things I didn't need and couldn't afford and how 6 years later it's still hurting me and how much work it's taking to try to fix it. I told them how embarrasing it was to have my first car repo'd. How depressed I was after that happened and how horrible of a person it made me feel. Etc, etc, etc. Things I wish my mom and dad would have taught us. So, she got a fingerhut card and he got a Victorias Secret. They weren't approved or offered anything else we tried and I didn't want to risk lots of inqs for builder cards. I don't want them starting out with high fee cards like I did (Orchard bank) just to close them a few years later. They don't have the money for a secured card right now, but they both are planning on obtaining one by summer. We laid out a 3 year plan. Worked the plan on paper together. They understood the concept & reasons why. This was about 3 months ago. Today I get a call from my sister. She's maxed out her (well, his) Vsecret card and fingerhut and missed both payments this month. Wonders if I can help them get a payday loan to pay it off. UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I made her life worse. I feel guilty. I knew how she was with money and was hoping her recent marriage would have helped. I don't know him as well, but seems to be thriftier. I was wrong. She wasn't ready for plastic and needs to learn her lesson like I did. It sucks. I wanted to save her the headache. I guess the only saving grace is she's still young and when she's ready she'll have someone who can tell here where to go to LEARN IT ON HER OWN! BTW sis... if you are on this site trying to read up on your own, congrats! Keep reading. It's confusing at first. Advice I wish I would have taken... don't even look at posts that have B* in the title until you have extra money to throw around and a clean report. Don't go on a wild app spree, it's easier to stick with just a few (like 3) cards and let them grow. And stop charging things you don't need!

I'm going to visit my mom, sister & step father for two weeks and they've asked me to look at their credit reports. A HUGE step. My folks are super super paranoid about the internet, credit, "the man", banks etc. They still think if you check your credit it HURTS your score dramatically. My stepdad tried to order a credit report over the phone once and couldn't figure it out and was too paranoid to put his Social Security number in. So, for them to let me order their reports for them is a BIG DEAL. They have excellent credit (from what I gather). Never late and have pretty high credit lines. BUT they carry a large balance from some house & business start up expense. I'm looking to BT for them as well as teach them some of the things I've learned (>9% etc). My younger sister is on the same road I was in my 20's, but I am excited to also help her- she expressed interest in my help with a few baddies. I've been stressing to her the IMPORTANCE of ontime payments. I'm also going to help her write some GW letters and look into a few collections accounts she has. She has NO postive trade lines and told me she swore off all credit. I'm going to help her out there. Question- I'm really hoping to become an AU on some of my parents cards, but they have already expressed distrust in this idea. They think if I mess up my credit it will hurt them. How can I explain this to them? Any advice?